New Year greetings from Word Smiths

January is a good time for fresh starts and new goals. So what are your resolutions for 2009? We've been asking people about their aims for the New Year, and so far everybody seems to be going with the usual: get fit, eat healthily, stop smoking and be nice. All of which are great (if you stick to them), but why not plan to do something different this year?

A good place to start could be to learn how to create Mind Maps, which are fantastic planning tools. You can Mind Map your goals (business and/or personal) for the coming year or for the next five year period. For each one you can add the steps you must take, or the resources you need to achieve them. Once you have these goals in Mind Map form, you can work out how you want to prioritise them, and hence how you will need to allocate your time. The Mind Map will also enable you to see how the goals relate to each other, how they overlap and, in some cases, how they might conflict. Happiness Mind Map by Paul Foreman (more about him below) - click the thumbnail to view larger image.

Word Smiths is an independent partnership specialising in the creation and delivery of learning materials and training packages. We are also copywriters/ editors, audio book publishers and typesetters/ designers.

It doesn't matter whether you decide on something simple like walking the coast path or a more ambitious project like writing a book, Mind Maps can really help you to plan and achieve your goals for 2009. If you are not sure how to make a Mind Map, we'll be happy to send our free e-book Mind Mapping for Success - just send an email to nick@word-smiths.co.uk.

You don't need a lot of money to set yourself a challenge in 2009 and achieve it. All you need is the courage to decide what you would like to do and then to do it.

Open course programme

We are running two open events in the early part of 2009:

A full-day Speed Reading course on 10 February 2009
A full day Tuesday Effective Business Writing course on 10 March 2009

Both events will be held in Bristol. Full details + downloadable course brochures at www.word-smiths.co.uk/open-courses.php

We're offering a 20% discount off the normal course fee of £250 (ex VAT) to readers of Word Power: to claim this and book a place, just email nick@word-smiths.co.uk quoting code OCD0109X. We also offer reduced prices for individuals paying for themselves and for students - email us for details.

Our open courses are effective, enjoyable and great value for money. We beat all our competitors on quality and price. But don't just take our word for it. Here is what some of our recent clients have said:

"Just to say a massive thanks to Jane for Monday - I found the day really useful!" - Daniella
"We all thought the seminar was great" - Robert
"Thank you for two truly great workshops. I intend practicing and using the tools and methods you gave us until they are incorporated into every day life. I see great potential for improving the way in which I currently work and study" - Natasha
"The feedback has been excellent, the course was indeed extremely useful and it was such a pleasure meeting Jane" - Catherine

In-company courses

If you need to arrange training for more than three or four people, an in-company / in-house course is often the most convenient and cost-effective option. We run courses in:

Mind Mapping
Speed Reading
Memory Techniques
Effective Business Writing

Writing Business Plans
Taking Minutes of Meetings
Proofreading
Grammar on the Rocks

Highly experienced presenter Jane Smith has delivered Word Smiths courses to people in universities and colleges, financial institutions, industry, government departments, local authorities, NGOs and other public sector bodies. Each course can be given your organisation's specific focus so that it meets your particular objectives.

Course brochures, costs and booking info at www.word-smiths.co.uk/open-courses.php (open courses) and www.word-smiths.co.uk/in-company.php (in-company courses).

On the website

Our website is changing all the time and contains some goodies which you may not have discovered yet. For example see:

Download audio books for details of how to download editions of our popular audio books - multiple titles for less than the price of a single physical edition
Speed reading which features a couple of video clips from partner Jane Smith's Speed Reading Presentation to the AUA (Association of University Administrators) Annual Conference
Mind Mapping for a short video of Tony Buzan - the inventor of the concept - talking about how to create a Mind Map
Gallery for examples of signs and notices that fail to make the right impact because they contain stylistic or grammatical errors. If you've got any that you'd like to share, please send them to us.

This is OK! This isn't;)

The linguistic police should leave exclamation marks alone, and focus their efforts on text-crime says Ariane Sherine in this article, published in The Guardian - this extract reproduced with permission from the author.

I like exclamation marks!!! Not to that extent, but I do. I use them sparingly, to liven up dialogue, signify volume and incredulity, and inject punch. But this, according to certain other writers, is a gross literary misjudgment on a par with ending a sentence with a comma,

"The exclamation mark is the last refuge of the scoundrel!" a writer friend railed (he'll be railing even more now I've defiled the end of his pronouncement). "It's the literary equivalent of an umbrella - pointy, almost always useless, and gets in the way."

Another journalist dubbed the mark "pointless", insisting that "all writing should convey its message without needless embellishment", while an editor spurned my upturned "i"s with a firm "we don't use screamers". I looked the word up, to discover that an exclamation mark can also be termed a gasper, startler and bang (explaining why the punctuation mark "?!" is called an interrobang).

All writers, avid readers and logophiles have at one point sighed in incredulous frustration at some scrawled misdemeanour, from misspelt signs to graffiti ardently declaring "JACK LOVE'S RACHEL". But those who insist that exclamation marks should overtake semicolons in the least-used punctuation league are misdirecting their wrath: there are far greater textual atrocities being keyed into a mobile phone right now.

The most deviant are abbreviations such as ITLTTUMOW ("I'm too lazy to think up my own words"). OMG, IMHO and the ubiquitous ROFLMAO (Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Off) now litter the world's inboxes, baffling anyone with the sense not to learn what they mean, and giving false hope to singles everywhere who think LOL stands for "lots of love". And, like a computer virus, they're proliferating: in the apocalyptic future, people will be able to write whole emails using these things, communicating like two fax machines and rendering words obsolete.

Follow this link to read the whole of Ariane's article on the Guardian website.

Look at these fabulous Mind Maps

If you need inspiration to help develop your Mind Maps - or if you need any kind of inspiration - look no further than Mind Map Inspiration . Here artist and writer Paul Foreman provides a host of hand drawn Mind Maps on a variety of topics, all which are both informative and lovely to behold.

When we decided to reproduce some to brighten up our ezine we were spoiled for choice. This stunning Mind Map, which pays homage to Paul's favourite painters, is a great way of depicting their different styles. Many thanks to Paul for giving us permission to use this and the Happiness Mind Map at the start of this ezine.

Claim your free e-books

Secrets of Speed Reading Many people on our mailing list have already downloaded Word Smiths' useful e-books The Secrets of Effective Speed Reading, Mind Mapping for Success, Decision Making for Success and Nick's Grammar Slammer.

If you haven't, and would like to receive them completely free, email nick@word-smiths.co.uk. I'll send you the link, username and password that you'll need to start downloading.

Our privacy policy explicitly states that we will never share or pass on the details of anyone on our newsletter mailing list.